All posts tagged "ruatoki"

Up until this morning I was prepared to wait and see. Maybe the police had over-played their hand, but maybe they were really on to something. Then I got an email from someone I trust, about someone else whom I also know and trust, who had their house searched and their PCs and cellphones confiscated. The rumour then turned out to be true.

I found this interview from National Radio with Derek Fox portrayed events in an entirely different light. He made the point that camo gear, unlicensed weapons and ammo are everyday features of life around Ruatoki where people regularly hunt. Tame Iti has been receiving goverment funding for camps in the Ureweras to teach bushcraft and survival skills. At this stage, everything the police have actually confirmed has a non-terrorist explanation. And Fox filled in the gaps on the history of Tuhoe and their land, which wasn't news to me, but has received little coverage in the press.

I am now starting to reach some tentative and unpleasant conclusions.

The police really are on a "round up the usual suspects" fishing expedition. That's an abuse of police powers.

When the police raid houses in Ruatoki they go in with the Armed Offenders Squad and bust in shouting. When they visit houses owned by Pakeha in Taupo, standard uniform officers knock on the door. That's racism. (Update: or is it? Good point made by David F.)

Neo-nazis in New Zealand also play war games in the bush. They have a history of vandalism, violence, intimidation and firearms offences. They boast online and offline about preparing for race war. But the police don't seem interested in pursuing the terrorist angle there at all. But Maoris with guns? They must be terrorists. That's racism.

Someone is leaking scary rumours like a sieve, and the news media are lapping it up. We are being failed by journalists who are not applying any skepticism at all, either to the police or to others. I mean, who gives a shit what Bomber Bradbury hints at on his blog? Is that news? I'm not buying the angle that it's news that there's a rumour. There's a lot of rumours out there, and I rely on journalists to sort the wheat from the chaff, not to dump a whole more chaff.

If I'm wrong about points 1-4, and the police are right, there must be something horrible just under our noses. So I don't want to be right, and I don't want to be wrong.

I am absolutely prepared to believe that Iti is a nutbar with plans to shoot people, but there's easier, lower-key ways to deal with him than this. In some quarters he will be a cause celebre now.

It looks as though we're going to see the same erosion of civil rights and climate of unjustified fear here that Australia, the UK and the US have experienced. I'm not sure what to do about it yet, but I'm thinking.